Rewind vs. Atlanta Hawks - 1/30/20

seventeen on Brian Seltzer. Seventy Sixers road trip agins in tough fashion against the team with the worst record in the Eastern Conference. And what's kind of like the continuation of a theme that we have seen recur unfortunately throughout this year, is that the seventy Sixers, well a couple of themes. One the most obvious is that they are far different team in terms of results at home versus

on the road. But then this other dynamic that's been at play, and I actually think was brought up during a postgame press conference as recently as the Lakers game on Saturday, when Brett Brown was asked, you know, like this has been a team that seems like it plays up the level of top tier opponents and then suffers lapses against some teams that on paper don't look like they're quite as sharp, and that was something that returned to the forefront again tonight. That's take nothing away from

Trey Young. I mean, if you didn't think the guy was an All Star let alone an All Star starter at the age of twenty one, he showed you in the first twelve minutes to play exactly why he deserves to be at that elite a level fourteen points, ten assists in the first period alone, a double double finished with thirty nine and a career high eighteen assists, the driver behind a really effective Atlanta pick and roll offensive attack. You know, the Hawks came in. Tom again has talked

about this throughout the night. I mean, they are, despite the record, a potent offensive team. They won a score and run in the seventy Sixers. It was like they kind of got into a track meet with them early and then didn't have the requisite defense to try and slow them down. The Sixers gave up seventy four points in the first half, tough to battle uphill from there. Six did get back to it a little bit defensively in the second half, but just one too many lapses

in the game. When you think about the end of the third quarter, a tip in that the Hawks had from Damien Jones, tough basket. Just not enough from the seventy six ers tonight, despite what I thought was a really good performance from Shake Milton. If you want to try and find a positive, the hope is that Shake for however long Josh Hrizinson is out, and then even when he returns, can just continue to be a productive

presence for the seventy six ers. In his second year, Milton a career high twenty seven Ben Simmons with thirty one points. He had fifteen of those points in the first quarter, also six rebounds and five assists twenty one apiece for Jewell and Beat and Tobias Harris. Joe finished with fourteen rebounds and thirty four minutes. Harris added nine boards for the seventy six ers. And then he also got to turn to some of the guys in the

front court for the Hawks. Whether it was John Collins with seventeen points and twenty rebounds or Damian Jones out of Vanderbilt with fourteen point seven boards, they were a problem for the seventy six ers. Tonight, Tom mc guinnis had the call at State Farm Arena. Why don't we start with the good Tom Shake Milton. He went on a real run at the end of the second quarter, and if not for him, who knows how this game

would have ended up. Absolutely And I remember Brian, and I forget what game it was, was maybe three games ago, and you were with Devon. I was at the Lakers game maybe and Shaker was starting for the first time, and Devon said, how do you think Shake would do? And again, and you've been around him enough and watched him and going all the way back to that Summer League, you know, a couple of years ago, and he just has a presidence, presidence and a confidence and he plays

at his own pace. And you know, my answer to Divon at the time of Shake'll be fine. Just watch And he was. And you know, he's a scorer, he's I think he's gonna be a good player for a number of years. And to your point, you know, obviously he's gonna go back into the rotation when Josh returns. But and that's like the silver linings, and you know, in this game, this is a tough game. So yeah, he had a great night, but that you know, long term, like hopefully in big games down the stretch and in

the postseason, you're gonna go to this guy. He's not gonna get twenty seven points, like I said, his role will be reduced, but you know he can deliver. And that's you know, obviously, these guys are all NBA players and they're all on the roster for a reason. And he showed tonight that he can be a really productive player. But oh what a disappointing defeat for the Sixers. I mean, and you know who's to say, you know what, how to figure it out? Like did they take him lightly?

I can't imagine any NBA team, particularly with the Sixers road record, doing that. But the Hawks definitely played with more fight Ben Simmons, I mean, Ben Simmons was dominant early on, but the way they picked apart the Sixers, you got to give him credit. And uh, you know, tough, tough loss for the Sixers. Final score one twenty seven,

one seventeen. You know, not to blame with the point time, but I think that Brett Brown, it sounded like the other night when he talked about this following the Lakers win, like he gets it talking about the Sixers in the level of competition. Yeah, honestly, like not to look too far ahead, Like it would not shock me if they rattled off three wins in a row. It just wouldn't paste upon the way things have gone the serior times. It's a bizarre thing. Yeah, no, and you obviously don't

know that and can't count on it. But to your point, they've had nice wins, but most of them have been at home, right, I mean most of those. I named the teams that the Sixers have beaten, and it includes Miami, Toronto, Milwaukee, Boston, all the Blakers. All of those happened at the Center.

And you know, and we've made this point before, so at the risk of redundancy, but you can't click your heels and expect to be this very competitive, top notch road team when you haven't delivered consistently at a high level on the road, and particularly against a team like this that you know that, again, this is their thirteenth win of the year, and they've got talent, and again I think their young bouncy athletes and how they play is such a contrast to the Sixers trying to play

bullyball and using their height and strength and physicality, and that the contrast his tips in the favor at least tonight, it did in favor of Atlanta, and Trey Young is incredible. I mean again, like as a basketball person and a fan of the game, you're coming to the game. Speaking to myself, I was very exciting to play, excited to see him play because he's a great young talent. And but as I said before, in other instances, not when he's shredding your team, and that's what he was doing.

He just they set those high screens for him and every single time. Now he's ahead of the guy guarding him, and nobody can hedge and show and get out there and slow him down. And so now he's basically playing like well, you know, he's got the ball and he's looking for guys off the corners, and then he gets into the lane and Joel or whomever's guarding the middle and the five men in the middle has to come give help, and he's either floating it up there or

he's dishing inside. And I'm telling you, Brian, some of the passes we saw tonight were just incredible. No look, one hand off the bounce, whistled over a Sixers player's shoulder and right by their ear and then download of somebody for a layup. It's just that that's basketball at its highest level. Alrighty Tom, while we shift our focus to what should be another fun Saturday night in the

primetime slot at eight thirty. This time it's on the road seventy Sixers and the four games season finale against the Boston Celtic Sixers going for the first four game sweep of Boston in the regular season since two thousand and two thousand and one, which is really amazing. But much like the seventy Sixers, Boston has a pair of all stars in their starting lineup in Camba Walker and Jason Tatum. They won tonight versus the Golden State Warriors, right,

and to be fair, they're going to be rested. And two of the Sixers wins came when Boston had played the night before, and you're like, oh, it's the NBA. Everybody has that. Well that that's part of what happened. The Sixers won in Boston when they had played the night before in Indiana and the most recent game in Philadelphia. So it's gonna be and that's it's a fair fight. If you will. And that's the NBA when they put the breathing room in the schedule, those marquee matchups on

Saturday night and Pride time they put breathing room. They gave those teams, you know, the night off, and so

it should be a good game. And for the Sixers, you know, they're staying here tonight, they're going to practice, and you know, you better bring your a game because that's a hard you know, when you said going up to Boston and you love the theater, it's a very intense hard place to win, but a little bit of sense of dread too because it is that and the Sixers certainly in the playoffs and had difficulty up there a couple of years ago, and that that's been another

place like Toronto. Maybe not equally you know, record wise, but certainly you know, obviously it's been a hard place for the Sixers to win. So we'll see. I mean, like I said, this is a tough stretch here. Prior to the All Star break, you're hoping you get the five on the floor with your starters, but now Josh out, maybe a week, maybe longer, who's to say, But yeah, for the Sixers, you want to see a better effort on the road already. Time he will speak with you

from TD Garden on Saturday. All right, good night, thank you, Bryan. Tough loss for the seventy six Ers tonight, another bizarre performance against a team that certainly is in a lesser state than the seventy six ers. But we've seen that throughout this year. One twenty seven, one seventeen at the final, the seventy six ers four game road trip begins in defeat time. Now to get to some of the highlights.

Early on, it was looking encouraging. Just minutes after finding out he would be headed to the All Star Game as a reserve out of the Eastern Conference for a second straight year, Ben Simmons started on fire. Six down one sixteen fifteen miles love the Simmons and another allayook jamp. Ben Simmons is five for five, He's got four slam dogs first dalaoop. Well, yeah, he was getting out in the open court, getting right past the Hawks and having his way. That made it at one point, seventy six

Ers lead seventeen six teen. They would lead again at nineteen eighteen, and that would be their last lead to the night. Trey Young went off in the first quarter for fourteen points and ten assists. Atlantic at thirty nine to thirty one after one, and you're thinking yourself, this is not feeling good. They opened up a double figure lead in the second quarter, and if not by the grace of a man named Shake, the seventy six ers would have likely been staring at a pretty hefty deficit

of the half. Simmons On Young crosses of over down the lane, right hand loader, ribby short, no good, well defended by Ben, rebounded by Joel Simmons, ball and beat back into the lane. Ben dropped it. Sexu's thought he fans thought he walk. You're shake for three up and good, the first title they had won there in fifty six years. And I don't think it's true that he played with a broken arm. He's shake built, not a drive up

and good. So Milton goes right back at Carter. Shake's got five free throws, now ten points, You're Shake throws out top to Benny, three seconds to shoot. Seventh's back to Milton, Shake from well beyond over Carter. It's good. Shake. Bilt puts it a just under three seconds ago, and the seventy sixers clawed within two, but due to a funky sequence involving technicals and this and that. At the end of the first half, the seventy six er down seventy four to sixty seven. Going into the break, the

Sixers in the third quarter they had a glimpse. They cut the deficit down two single digits and once again as Shake Milton was in the middle of it. Sixers ball Shake does have a season high in a game. He's got it again. Three ball up and good back to back threes by Milton and it's ninety two eighty six. Seventy Sixers trailed by seven ninety ninety two going into the fourth. On their first possession, they got the margin down to five, but then Atlanta scored eleven straight points.

There's an uphill climb the rest of the way. Walks lead one twelve ninety six sevens down low, Ben turns around two players, goes off the glass and it and Ben sivons in an impressive play down low. He is now nine of thirteen from the field. But this game belonged to Trey Young and the Lanta Hawks. They win by ten one twenty seven to one seventeen. The Hawks shoot forty eight and a half percent from the field seventy six ers forty six percent, six Ers just nine

three point or shooting under thirty percent. Atlanta knockdown eleven threes. Both team hit thirty two free throws. However, these seventy six ers were thirty two or forty five from the line, with Joel Embiid going two for seven from the stripe. Let's hope that that does not happen again. You'd think that the odds are pretty long that it does. Sixers outrebounded by six in the game. They also weren't able to cash in on scoring twenty one points off the

Hawks turnovers. Sixers led by Ben Simmons thirty one points, twenty seven points for Shake Milton, They new career high Juell Embiad with twenty one points and fourteen rebounds. Twenty one points and nine boards, plus four assists for Tobias Harris, eleven for James Nis. The third off the bench, Matissetibel

held to just three points. Tough night for him, thirty nine points a career high eighteen assists for Trey Young, John Collins with seventeen points and twenty boards, Damien Jones with the fourteen point seven rebounds, and a man named Vince Carter went for fourteen and six rebounds and four for eight shooting off the bench. Sixers lose their now thirty one and eighteen. The Atlanta Hawks improved to thirteen and thirty six. Next up for the seventy Sixers the

Boston Celtics. They beat the Golden State Warriors at ted Garden tonight by the final of one nineteen to one oh four. Marcus Smart at twenty one off the bench as he continues to play well for the seas you've been listening to Rewind, look out for fresh episodes the day after every seventy Sixers game this season.